ms access - Press enter in textbox and execute button function in VBA

Question

I have a login form to my database done in Access 2010 and using VBA code. I want to be able to press Enter on txtboxPassword and automatically execute btnLogin_Click event. I tried this:

Private Sub txtboxPassword_KeyDown(KeyCode As Integer, Shift As Integer)
 If KeyCode = 13 Then
    btnLogin_Click
 End If
End Sub

What I get is a self-made error saying Password is incorrect. If I debug I see that actually txtPassword is null, but I just typed the text in it!

However If I click the Login button with the mouse it works perfect. Why does vba behave like that? How can I do it to make it work?

NOTE I also tried with:

• KeyPress: after I press Enter the focus goes to btnLogin (maybe also because the tab order is like that), but the btnLogin_Click event is not executed.
• KeyUp: same like KeyPress.

Answer 1

The buttons in Access have a property called Default (on the Other property page). If you set it to Yes the form calls the button click event handler automatically, when you press Enter. No need for additional Key-event handling.

There is also a Cancel property. If you set it to Yes for a button, the form activates it automatically when the user types the Esc-key. Very practical for Cancel buttons.